Small Ball

April 21, 2014 Q: This season it seems a good part of the season was focused on going bigger. Maybe going small is the road to another championship. -- Joel. A: Exactly. Look even at the Atlanta Hawks and how going small helped them against Indiana, when Roy Hibbert couldn't find anyone to cover. I think small ball is back, especially if Al Jefferson continues to deal with a lack of mobility due to his foot injury. By playing Chris Bosh at center, or even LeBron James there, it means the Bobcats either have to accept Jefferson's lack of defensive mobility, or remove him. It practically becomes win-win for the Heat.

Rarely does Chris Bosh feel like a true NBA center on the basketball court. At 6-foot-11 and 235 pounds, he will always be considered a big man with a perimeter-oriented game. Bosh is among the new breed of the versatile and sleek at the position. So Bosh, the Miami Heat's center, is cherishing every bit of this series against the Brooklyn Nets. In a matchup of undersized lineups, he is feeling every bit of Shaquille O'Neal, David Robinson and Patrick Ewing. "You have to learn to enjoy this," Bosh said.

Change tends to be a gradual process for the Miami Heat, calculated, rarely rushed, seldom spontaneous. Based on the magnitude of Thursday's Game 4 rout of the San Antonio Spurs, as well as Friday's tone of coach Erik Spoelstra in the wake of that 109-93 romp, expect the Heat's new lineup to be the same in Sunday's Game 5 of these NBA Finals, which now stand tied 2-2. While swingman Mike Miller offered a negligible statistical impact...

April 21, 2014 Q: This season it seems a good part of the season was focused on going bigger. Maybe going small is the road to another championship. -- Joel. A: Exactly. Look even at the Atlanta Hawks and how going small helped them against Indiana, when Roy Hibbert couldn't find anyone to cover. I think small ball is back, especially if Al Jefferson continues to deal with a lack of mobility due to his foot injury. By playing Chris Bosh at center, or even LeBron James there, it means the Bobcats either have to accept Jefferson's lack of defensive mobility, or remove him. It practically becomes win-win for the Heat.

Rarely does Chris Bosh feel like a true NBA center on the basketball court. At 6-foot-11 and 235 pounds, he will always be considered a big man with a perimeter-oriented game. Bosh is among the new breed of the versatile and sleek at the position. So Bosh, the Miami Heat's center, is cherishing every bit of this series against the Brooklyn Nets. In a matchup of undersized lineups, he is feeling every bit of Shaquille O'Neal, David Robinson and Patrick Ewing. "You have to learn to enjoy this," Bosh said.

St. Thomas Aquinas was relentless in its "small ball" approach, and the strategy paid off with an 11-0 victory over Nova and a 15th consecutive district championship Friday. The Raiders consistently put the ball in play and kept the Titans off balance with aggressive base running. St. Thomas (23-4) advances to host Ida Baker in a regional quarterfinal. Nova (11-9) will play at Barron Collier in its region. Seldom-used freshman Alicia Angelbello, who was highly effective in all three of her previous starts, once again had a strong outing, striking out seven while allowing only one hit. She did not walk any of the 10 batters she faced.

To Heat coach Pat Riley, small ball remains a small-time approach. So despite the Heat's success with an undersized lineup in Thursday's 112-106 loss in Portland, Riley said the tactic will remain one of last resort. "It can be viable to go to," Riley said, as the Heat turned its attention to Friday night's late game against Golden State, "but it's always small ball when it's sort of a desperate thing." Only after the Heat fell behind the Trail Blazers by 16 in the third quarter did Riley relent, moving 6-foot-8 Udonis Haslem to center and surrounding him with guards Dwyane Wade, Ricky Davis, Daequan Cook and Jason Williams.

April 7, 2014 Q: Ira, is small ball back? It looks like Udonis Haslem will be the starting center no matter who they play. And Chris Bosh's 3-pointers can give them the spacing they had with Shane Battier. -- Robert. A: Honestly, I don't see any other option at this point. They is no way they can reestablish rhythm with Greg Oden in time, especially with a pair of back-to-back sets remaining, and it's not as if the Heat are about to mess with the chemistry and energy that Chris Andersen delivers off the bench.

When the Heat and Suns swapped Shaquille O'Neal and Shawn Marion, they did more than exchange players. They switched philosophies, too. Pat Riley, always a proponent of the power game with a big man planted in the post, said he's moving the Heat to an open-court game. The Suns, who popularized the fast-paced, so-called "small ball" approach, decided they needed a stronger post presence to break through to the Finals. Recent history shows the power game is the way to a title. Since the Michael Jordan-Bulls dynasty ended in 1998, the Spurs and Lakers won titles with post players as the offensive focus, and Detroit did it with center Ben Wallace as a dominant defender and rebounder.

No team has faced small ball more than the Miami Heat these past three seasons. It's called practice. Yet even with those sessions against the attack that has helped lift Erik Spoelstra's team to consecutive NBA championships, the proliferation of teams going with undersized, athletic, outside-shooting lineups has proven problematic for the Heat's defense. "You would think we'd be more attuned," forward Shane Battier said after Friday's practice at AmericanAirlines Arena.

April 7, 2014 Q: Ira, is small ball back? It looks like Udonis Haslem will be the starting center no matter who they play. And Chris Bosh's 3-pointers can give them the spacing they had with Shane Battier. -- Robert. A: Honestly, I don't see any other option at this point. They is no way they can reestablish rhythm with Greg Oden in time, especially with a pair of back-to-back sets remaining, and it's not as if the Heat are about to mess with the chemistry and energy that Chris Andersen delivers off the bench.

The challenge Wednesday night took Shane Battier back to the heavy lifting, with Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin the assignment, just as Monday delivered the oversized matchup against the Detroit Pistons' Greg Monroe. But after Saturday's quality defensive effort against New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony, the question is whether Battier could yet return to his wing-defender identity for the Miami Heat. "Instinctually, my instincts now are a power forward," said Battier, who has been slotted almost exclusively into such a role the past two seasons, with the rare perimeter challenges now coming against teams that have turned to small ball, such as the Knicks.

No team has faced small ball more than the Miami Heat these past three seasons. It's called practice. Yet even with those sessions against the attack that has helped lift Erik Spoelstra's team to consecutive NBA championships, the proliferation of teams going with undersized, athletic, outside-shooting lineups has proven problematic for the Heat's defense. "You would think we'd be more attuned," forward Shane Battier said after Friday's practice at AmericanAirlines Arena.

The coach who made "position-less" a Miami mantra is talking about positions. The franchise that rode small ball to consecutive NBA championship is thinking big. The team known for reinventing itself even in the best of times appears to again be in a period of rediscovery. "Nothing," Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said, "is set in stone the rest of the year, and we're going to evaluate everything day to day. " To a degree, Spoelstra's players are forcing their coach's hand.

Small ball was born out of necessity last season. The Miami Heat's training-camp roster essentially dictated the approach. Then Chris Andersen arrived in January and the legend of the Birdman took flight. Now, although still in its infant stages, there are the possibilities of Greg Oden. The itsy-bitsy contender could yet cast an imposing shadow. "We now have that option," forward LeBron James said of the Heat muscling up at times. "To have two physical bigs that can rebound, can block shots, can finish at the rim, I think it's great for our team and I'm really excited about it. " The shift over the past two seasons had been of power forwards moving up to center, small forwards to power forward.

While the end result was the same, the Plantation Senior Division All-Stars followed a much different route to victory in their second game of pool play Saturday at the U.S. Southeast Regional Tournament in DeBary. Unlike their 6-0 shutout of North Carolina on Friday, the 15- and 16-year-olds from District 21 in south Broward County spent their afternoon in central Florida involved in a slugfest with Darlington County, South Carolina before emerging with a 19-12 extra-inning win. Kenny Hornig connected for a three-run home run during a seven-run eighth inning as the Florida champions broke the game open after both teams were deadlocked at 12-12 through the regulation seven innings.

While "reality" shows purport to show a slice of life, they really focus on the pursuit of money, sex and fame. If you are interested in seeing "reality" in its truest sense (is there such a thing as real reality?) with a story line that is a slice of life, and kind of inspiring too, check out PBS's Small Ball: A Little League Story. The 90-minute documentary tracks the exploits of the Aptos All-Stars on a six-week trip from their home base in Aptos, Calif., 50 miles south of San Francisco, to the 2002 Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa. While there have been Little League documentaries done before, what makes this one different is the quality of the production and the number of interesting stories within the bigger tale of kids, along with their parents, following a dream.